1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle door handle device, and particularly, relates to a balance weight of a handle lever of the vehicle door handle device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional vehicle door handle device has a base case secured to a door, and an L-shaped handle lever rotatably mounted on the base case with a supporting shaft and connected to a latch device of a vehicle door by way of a coupling member. The latch device is unlatched by rotation of the handle lever in a door-opening direction from an initial position around the supporting shaft.
The handle lever is kept in the initial position with an elastic force of a return spring. A great force applied to a vehicle body at an accident and the like, however, may turn the handle lever in the door-opening direction against the elastic force of the return spring. This is because an unpreferable inertia force may act on the handle lever due to an impact at the accident.
Providing a balance weight to the handle lever or the latch device (with which the handle lever is coupled) may decrease the above inertia force.
However, the conventionally proposed balance weight requires a large mounting space, and there have been problems in designing the door handle device.